Improvement in dies for manufacturing car-axles



f UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD KERR, oF NEW YORK, N. Y.

A IMPROVEMENT IN DIES' FOR MANUFACTURING CAR-AXLES.

Specification forming part of Letters .Patent No. 156,295, dated October 27, 1874; application filed August 31, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD KERR, a native of Great Britain, now residing in the city, county, and State of New York, have made an invention of a new and useful Improvement in the Means' of Manufacturing Oar- Axles for Railroad-Cars; and that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description and specification of the same. I

Previous to my invention car-axles havev been manufactured' by heating first one end of a fagot of bars, and hammering it to the desired form, and by then heating the other end and hammering itin like manner. This system requires much time and labor, as at least two heatings have to be made to finish the ends orarms of the axle, and the place at which the second journal is to be formed must be carefully measured by the hammer-smith.

My improvement in the means of manufacturing car-axles consists of a peculiar hammer having double-tapered hammer-faces or dies, which are the counterpart of the finished axle, and are guided so as to match each other In order that my invention may be fully understood, I haverepresented in the accompanying drawing a steam-hammer embodying my improvement in the best form at present devised by me, and I will proceed to describe the same, and the mode in which I manufacture car-axles by means of it.

Figure l represents a side view of the said hammer. Fig. 2 represents a lower `face or anvil die. Fig. 3 represents a transverse section of the same at the line w .r of Fig. l.

The hammer thus represented has a strong' frame, A, whose central standards b are connected by a bridge-beam, upon which 'the steam-cylinder O is supported, and whose lateral standards d act as guides for maintaining the hammer-face or upper die E in its proper position, `relatively to the lower face or die F. The hammer-head G is long and narrow, so as to sustain the upper faceor die E, which is as long as a car-axle. This hammer-head is combined with the piston of the steam-cylinder G,

by means of the cross-head hand the links j j, l

which last are passed through guide-bearings in the cross-beams lc of the frame. The anvilblock L is long and narrow, so as to support the long under face or die F throughout its length. The steam-cylinder is supplied with steam by means of a slide-valve worked by a hand-lever, M, and the valve should be balanced so as to work easily. The hammerface or die E is secured to the hammer-head G by dovetailed snugs n a and keys s s, and the anvil face or die is secured to the anvil-block in like manner. Each die E and F contains two double-tapered grooves, r t, the one, r, for the .purpose of reducing the axle-blank to the requisite diameter and double-tapered form, and the other, t,.for forming the journals simul- -taneously at the requisite distance apart, so that all measurement on thepart of the hammer-` smith is dispensed with. In order that the journal-groove t may form the journals, as stated, its ends e e are reduced in size to the dimensions of the journals, so that the journal-groove of each die at these parts is the counterpart of half the finished double-tapered car-axle, but is open at the ends, to permit any excess of metal to elongate.

In manufacturing car-axles according to my invention, I prefer to employ a fagot of square bars prepared in the ordinary way, but, as the waste by heating is less whensmanufac/turin g by my system than by that heretofore used, a lighter fagot may be employed. The fagot is heated to a Welding-heat in areverberatory furnace, and is welded a'd reduced to a rough rounded blank of a little greater diameter than the finished axle, either by means of a steam-hammer-or by passing it through rolls having a series of grooves adapted to reduce the fagot. As, however, the construction and operation of an ordinary steam-hammer and ot' rolls are well understood, I do not deem it necessary to describe them minutely.

After the blank-has been produced, it is heated from end to end in a reverberatory furnace, such as is employed for heating blooms and similar masses of iron or steel; then it is placed in the double-tapered body-groove r, and is hammered therein and turned between the blows of the hammer until it is reduced to the required diameter and double-tapered il .N N l form. As soon as this is accomplished, the blank is transferred to the journal-groove t, and is hammered therein and turned in like manner until the journals are formed. As the parts c c of the journal-groove, which give form to the journals, are rigidly connected together by the intervening part of the face or die, the journals are necessarily formed at the exact distance from each other deter mined by the hammer, and consequently the necessity oi' careful measurement o1 the part of the hammer-smith is dispensed with. Moreover, as the entire length of both arms ofthe car-axle blank is hammered at one operation, the successive heating of the two ends or arms is rendered unnecessary. The result ofr the improvements is, that about four times as many axles may be forged in a day as by the old system, with the same number of workmen. As the journal-groove t is used principally for forming the journals, the portion of the groove between the journal parts e c need not be of the precise form of the finished axle throughout its entire length, and if any sagging of the body of the axle occurs from Ithis variation of form, it may be corrected by transferring the axle to the body-groove r after the journals are forged, and by giving it a few lightblows so as tostraighten it.

I prefer to make the body-groove and the journal-groove in the same hammer-face or die, as the labor of transferring the blank from one groove to the other is thereby reduced tothe lowest amount; but, if deemed best, the body-groove may be made in one pair of dies, and the journal-groove may be made in another pair, operated by a separate steamcylinder. u

I vclaim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters PatentaThe combination, substantially as before set forth, of the'two dies having double-tapered grooves, the steam-cylinder, and the guiding-frame.

Witness my hand this 17th day of August, A. D. 1874.

Y. EDWARD KERR.

Witnesses:

'Wr/I. W. LYON, GEORGE HILL. 

